Black hole pair creation and the entropy factor

It is shown that in the instanton approximation the rate of creation of black holes is always enhanced by a factor of the exponential of the black hole entropy relative to the rate of creation of compact matter distributions (stars). This result holds for any generally covariant theory of gravitational and matter fields that can be expressed in Hamiltonian form. It generalizes the result obtained previously for the pair creation of magnetically charged black holes by a magnetic field in Einstein-Maxwell theory. The particular example of pair creation of electrically charged black holes by an electric field in Einstein-Maxwell theory is discussed in detail.